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Disney+ has started cracking down on password sharing in the US (www.engadget.com)

submitted 10 months ago by GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Disney+ started getting strict about password sharing in Canada last year, and now it's expanding the restriction to the US. According to The Verge, the streaming service has been sending out emails to its subscribers in the country, notifying them about a change in its terms of service. Its service agreement now states that users may not share their passwords outside of their household "unless otherwise permitted by [their] service tier," suggesting the arrival of new subscription options in the future.

The Verge says Disney+ told subscribers that they can analyze the use of their account to "determine compliance," though it didn't elaborate on how its methods work exactly. "We're adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household, and explaining how we may assess your compliance with these limitations," Disney+ reportedly wrote in its email. In its Service Agreement, the service describes "household" as "the collection of devices associated with [subscribers'] primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein." The rule already applies to new subscribers, but old ones have until March 14 to feel its effects.

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[-] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 85 points 10 months ago

Was no surprise that other platforms would follow Netflix with not allowing sharing passwords.

What does surprise me is that people actually pay their own subscription for these platforms. Netflix had a win in profit/revenue. I’m surprised that these people did not go for the Piracy method even though, they complain about:

Price increases
Not allowed to share password/ account
Content not available on said platform and having to go to others platforms
Cancellation of shows after one or two seasons

[-] AProfessional@lemmy.world 45 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

There are millions of people who can afford $140/yr. They just don't complain on forums.

[-] nvvp@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 10 months ago

$140 a year, sure. That's just Netflix or Disney Plus though. If you want all of the services these days you're up to $140 a month.

[-] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

While I've cut back because of the abundance of services, the always increasing prices, and the cutting of content, I still don't get this comparison. Most people don't get all the services the same way most people didn't get every cable package available. I've never had more than 5 at once and 1 was because it was included with my internet service and another because it was included in my Prime subscription. I really only ever consciously had 3 services and I'm down to two now because fuck Netflix.

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[-] Dasnap@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Most people don't even know how piracy works unless it gets as mainstream as Napster did. You tell them about torrenting, -arr programs, debrid services, and they'll have no clue what you're talking about.

[-] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I pirate with torrents and the rest still goes over my head.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

What does surprise me is that people actually pay their own subscription for these platforms. Netflix had a win in profit/revenue. I’m surprised that these people did not go for the Piracy method even though, they complain about:

Most people don't like change. Maybe they have a habit of switching on Netflix daily during dinner or something. There's also a big "Netflix" button on their remotes and their TV's homescreen, which serves as a constant reminder. They probably even have the app on their phones. All of this leads to mental conditioning and addiction, it's now a part of their daily lives. Humans are a creature of habit, and it's hard to break out of a routine ingrained over several years.

Piracy could be a option for some people, but it's still either too technical, or not as convenient, for the average Joe. Sure, there are even websites you could simply go to without installing any app, but most people won't bother with that - they just want to hit a single button on their remote/TV and watch something, without needing to go to some website, a website which may eventually stop working.

You'll find that most people would prefer to take the path of least resistance, even if it means paying (more) money. Don't forget that even pirates may sometimes pay money to make things easier - eg usenet/seedbox/debrid users - and that's simply because they too would prefer to take the path of least resistance, even if it means being in the ironic situation of paying to watch pirated content. So it's not too hard to imagine why normal people would just prefer to cough up the extra cash for Netflix and continue with their lives, routines unchanged.

[-] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

My mother in law is like this. She has cable and she'll never, never get rid of it. She'll just browse for huge chuncks of time thru the long, long list of channels (including shipping, music, spanish, and many of which aren't even available or are pay per view). The act of browsing the crappy ui itself is soothing to her (fucking maddening to me but w\e).

I think she has fond memories of watching cable news and such as a family when she was a child. It's the only thing that makes sense because she's alwayscomplaining about the price but refuses to cut the cord. Nothing other than rose- colored glasses could account for her behavior that i can fathom.

[-] Z3k3@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Of it were up to me I'd drop it in a heart beat. I'm outvoted by kids grandkids and wife who watch random things throughout the day.

I barely watch TV these days and would happily hooky the odd things I do want to see

[-] Evkob@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

I totally get that the couple of bucks a month is worth saving any headache from doing tech support for family members.

However, if you want to try switching them to pirated sources, Stremio + Torrentio add-on and a Real-Debrid sub (which is paid but much cheaper than a streaming service) is great for giving you a Netflix-like interface for pirated content. It's easy enough that I coached my dad on how to set it up via text.

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[-] JCreazy@midwest.social 45 points 10 months ago

I decided I would help Disney out with their password sharing problem by canceling my Disney Plus account a few months ago. No, they never have to worry about it again.

[-] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 44 points 10 months ago

I'm not surprised. It went really well for Netflix.

Everybody said they'd cancel Netflix over it, even that it would be a mistake that would kill Netflix, but when it came down to it, most continued paying/bought a plan and Netflix became more profitable.

[-] Dasnap@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago

The people who said they'd cancel probably did, they were just the minority.

[-] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 20 points 10 months ago

Everybody said they’d cancel Netflix over it

What's probably more likely is that the "everybody" that you heard from was an incredibly unrepresentative sample of people from a bubble of nerdy tech enthusiasts.

[-] Silentiea@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago

And those people, like me, probably did cancel.

I am still surprised more people didn't cancel since everyone I know who uses streaming services shares them, and most are splitting the cost.

[-] Hyperreality@kbin.social 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Great news to be honest. I hope disney sees a similar spike in profits so they can make more great shows for me to pirate.

[-] ExcursionInversion@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Ay someone gets it. Everyone can win

[-] NoIWontPickaName@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

Ironically I dropped Netflix for the Hulu Disney package because of password sharing and I was the one paying.

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[-] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 40 points 10 months ago

Oddly enough, the price hikes earlier last year were enough to move me to spend four times as much as an annual subscription for a NAS and 16TB of storage. I made digital backups of my media and set up my parents and sister's family with Jellyfin accounts to access my media as needed. Now they can watch videos of our wedding and my niece's dance recital from the comfort of their living rooms. All without worrying about arbitrary changes to TOS. And I'm learning about all kinds of horrible children's shows. OTOH my niece and nephew are learning about cool things like Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toons.

I've only run into a couple small issues when it came to backing up my media, but I'll get them sorted.

[-] joyjoy@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago

four times as much as an annual subscription

If you're gonna waste money, you might as well waste money on something big.

[-] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

It's not a waste, it's an investment lol

[-] CurbsTickle@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Confirmed

I've got... A rather large storage pool.

My media server also handles family movies, including VHS from the 80s I've converted and cleaned up.

Server itself is a cheap off lease dell micro I bought several years back for $125, added a $50 nvme SSD, and the igpu has been chugging along transcoding beautifully since.

Same system also runs a separate book/comic/etc service, backup DNS, a generated kid safe "channel" that is available on the media server, all my dslr photos are on there, etc, etc.

Which then for what is crucial to me gets a local and a remote backup.

At this point I've saved money over paying for subscriptions, and I use it for a whole lot more (so even more savings on top).

[-] Eggyhead@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

I'd like to use Jelly Fin, but it has not been a great experience for me on a Mac with an Apple TV. HDR doesn't carry over, some videos are blocked due to music licensing or something, and the library syncing doesn't always work. I'm not sure if it's a Jellyfin problem, a lack of support for Mac hardware, or just my personal incompetence with this sort of thing (very likely). I managed to get Plex to work without issue, so I'm using that even if I don't really like the UX all that much.

[-] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

First off, I'm by no means even close to an expert. More of a spurt, in fact.

I tried Plex but wanted to give remote access at varying levels, which, to my understanding, requires paying for a subscription to Plex Premium or some such. Basically I wanted to be able to see my sexy home videos from anywhere, let my parents see my wedding videos and their granddaughter's dance recital, and let my niece see her dance recital only (to painfully stretch a metaphor).

Jellyfin has it's limits. It's easier for my needs in part because my family has Roku, and there is a built-in app for Jellyfin on Roku devices. I have a Samsung TV and haven't taught myself how to sideload Jellyfin into my TV. The app works great tho, so I can watch things on my phone or laptop with ease while on vacation. I probably spent a few hours teaching myself about port forwarding, VPNs, and such. I bought a Synology NAS, which simplified things quite a bit.

Anyway, I'm not at all familiar with Apple products. Nothing wrong with them, mind, I just never liked the walled garden ethos

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 2 points 10 months ago

See if the TV supports DLNA by any chance, Jellyfin does, so all you'd need would be a DLNA controller app on your phone to make one cast to the other.

Alternatively, there's a self-hosted app called BubbleUPnP Server that can DLNA-enable (some) things without native support. I know for a fact it can do it for Google devices, maybe it can do it for Samsung too.

[-] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 months ago

i dont even sub to streaming services and currently building my media server (5x 12tb drives in zfs z2) just for archival and setting up a service for some family inthe case they want to bail. aa prices fo up, people are just going to look for a diy way at some point.

[-] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I understood some of those words lol

I was toying with the idea of a home made server using an existing case and a mini atx, but then i ran across a 16TB NAS HDD for like $240 at microcenter and just decided to go the simple route, picked up a two bay Synology case and the rest is history

[-] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

zfs is just a disk file system format (e.g like fat32, exfat, ntfs), z2 for laymen is basically double parity drives (drives are setup that 2 drive worth is used as data integrity, so in the case of a dead disk drive, data isnt lost and can be repaired. z2 offers 2 disks can die before recovery is finished (meaning requires 3 drives to die to actually lose data))

[-] cooopsspace@infosec.pub 2 points 10 months ago

The great part is you own it at the end of it.

Even then, I've had hard drives last 10 years. But YMMV.

[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 38 points 10 months ago

Password crackdown aside, I don't really get the appeal of the service unless you have kids or an abnormally large boner for Star Wars and MCU

[-] misterundercoat@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

(takes a sip out of 1999 The Phantom Menace Taco Bell promotional cup)

I don't know what you're talking about.

[-] trumpetmouth@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

no one's ever told me it's abnormally large before - I'm blushing!

[-] RavenFellBlade@startrek.website 3 points 10 months ago

So my child, who is not old enough for their own account, will now no longer be able to watch Disney+ while attending school at their residential academy 400 miles away. Just like Netflix. And just like Netflix, my subscription will be canceled the moment they try to block them from logging in.

[-] HeapOfDogs@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I tried out Disney and it came with Hulu. All I watched was Hulu. Both cancelled.

[-] rjthyen@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Just get the service for a month and drop it after catching up on the things you want. I keep it so I can watch bluey with my daughter, but I rotate most of my services.

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[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 2 points 10 months ago

They have a good collection of movies and series. They've also started diversifying, bringing in some anime, some documentaries...

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[-] the_q@lemmy.world 36 points 10 months ago

🏴‍☠️

[-] RavenFellBlade@startrek.website 31 points 10 months ago

[-] Rajtinka@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago

Meh. I cancelled Netflix when they did it and I cancelled my Hulu bundle when I got the email a couple of days ago. I know I won't make a difference, but I also won't miss either one of them.

[-] XenGi@lemmy.chaos.berlin 13 points 10 months ago

You will make a difference because you're not the only one. Thx for doing the right thing. With enough pressure maybe they'll learn.

[-] ji17br@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

As much as I hate it, no, it won’t make a difference. Netflix did this and it gave them a record number of subscribers. Seems like for every 1 that cancels 2 more subscribe.

[-] XenGi@lemmy.chaos.berlin 5 points 10 months ago

For now, sure. I mean the reason for these changes are short term earnings like always. But it won't with in the long term.

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[-] Assman@sh.itjust.works 25 points 10 months ago

If we can't use my MIL's account I will pirate the shows instead

[-] ISometimesAdmin@the.coolest.zone 11 points 10 months ago

Damn, Steamboat Willie going into public domain really has Disney tightening the purse strings /s

[-] sebinspace@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Demonoid never gave a shit about sharing my password :D

[-] taanegl@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

I've started cracking down on Disney+, and I'm getting flack for it. It's all "why did you dropkick our TV", "how did you get in here", "we're calling the police" bla bla bla bla. I'm just trying to help! Geez.

[-] Matty_r@programming.dev 3 points 10 months ago

Sometimes the people that need the most help, don't even realize it. Keep fighting the good fight.

[-] joyjoy@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

I'm sure just like Netflix, it will only effect Smart TVs. Netflix never stopped you from watching on your phone or browser.

[-] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I can get around password sharing rules on every streaming service that has them by using my phone and mobile data lmao.

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[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Disney lost 1.3 million subscribers last quarter. I’m sure this will help. 🙄

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this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024

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